Residential spaces are limited so get in touch early if you want to secure a place.

Rooms, hostel and camping spaces available.

Friday 10 April 2015

5-10pm Secret Cinema in Hecate’s Haven

A selection of films to make you think, act and feel!

Saturday 11 April 2015

7.30-9.30 Breakfast

9.30-11.00

Puppet making workshop, based on the Ubuntu philosophy, facilitated by Puppet-Stew.

Ubuntu is an idea from the Southern African region which means literally “human-ness,” and is often translated as “humanity toward others,” but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity”.

Focusing specifically on the ‘sharing/connecting’ theme, we will begin the session by getting to know each other and opening up about our current feelings, and getting our creative energy flowing. Sitting on the floor in a circle with our feet all touching {using a chair is an option for those who need} we will spend 15 minutes getting to know each other, relaxing into the space and each others company, through a series of quick paced, fun word games.

To be continued added to/ continued throughout the weekend…

11.00-12.00 Critical Frames: This session, facilitated by members of Making-Learning, will re-frame some critical theories of education as sites for creative practice. Using the craft of weaving on a frame, participants will transform discussions of learning into a collaborative art piece.

Walking as a means of learning and thinking has been revered for many centuries with philosophers and poets identifying walking as a means of reflection, contemplation and learning. Nor is it a particularly old-fashioned approach with award winning Nobel-prize winners and organisational gurus identifying walking as a productive means of learning.

This 2-hour session identifies the theory and practice of walking as a valid opportunity to develop both individuals and teams.

Please bring robust, all weather gear if you want to take part in this activity!

This session proposes two modes of orientation within thinking that aim to generate conceptual creativity and challenge practices that ‘do the work of thought’ for us: thinking-with and thinking without.

Thinking-with explores ethical orientations within ideas. Thinking-with is not thinking against (as a form of denunciation or dismissal, i.e., so and so is wrong and I am right), but a process of working-with the materials present as a kind of recombinatory practice.

Thinking without, on the other hand, is a means to shake off concepts that congeal through common sense repetition. For the imaginative thinker, hardened concepts can be burdens which make thought lag, smother emergent imaginaries and prevent conceptual creativity. They can make thinking—but also acting in the world—boring and constrained.

A room 101 for critical theory, thinking without is an opportunity to discard of the concepts you feel burdened by. It is a chance to practice the possibility of ‘what if we can think differently’ about the world and its conceptual architecture.

This session aims to deconstruct and show how performers and audiences can interact, explore and create transformative processes within the context of performance. Through music, we will dissolve the normal performer/audience boundaries using storytelling and issue-based material. We will set up a two-way conversation using creative methods ( for example, making paper ‘planes, creating ‘special effects’, ‘in the moment’ collaboration with the audience to create the show’s content and the use of artefacts for meaning-making during and beyond the show). This is radical audience participation aiming to showcase techniques for collective exploration of feminist issues. We promise an entertaining, fun, thought-provoking and practical experience.

5-10pm Secret Cinema II in Hecate’s Haven

Sunday 12 April 2015

7.30-9.30 Breakfast

8-9 Meditation & yoga led by Maggie Nicols

10-12 Not a manuscript installation, but manuscript occupation Isabel Pinto will explore subjective concepts of space and interaction through manuscript arrangements. Her session will examine the everyday accessibility and relevance of the historical experience.

I propose wandering about the mill in search of the best way to combine the symbolic value and eventful nature of drama manuscripts with the possibilities offered by a change in scenery. I want to go from floor to floor, room to room, area to area, along with drama manuscripts, in an attempt to inscribe new histories into the history of the mill.’

12-1 Lunch / refreshments

1-3 Legislative theatre is a technique developed by Augusto Boal. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how strong and able to speak up for yourself you are feeling when there are rules that are unfair or unjust. Legislative theatre explores problems and issues in legislation, looks for solutions and gives participants the opportunity to write up ideas for new legislation. What happens next is up to participants…facilitated by Deri Morgan